Comfort Women

The argument that the conscription of Korean or Chinese women, or even their voluntary service, for the purpose of “satisfying” the needs of Japanese soldiers in order to “protect” the soldiers themselves and the population of native women around them is a utilitarian argument and it is a bad one. It stems back to one of the major Kantian arguments against using people as tools. Even if the comfort women provide a solution to several different problems, that’s not the point. They are a poor solution for an even worse systemic problem, men raping women. All of the reasons put forth for the use of comfort women in the Bin article revolve around men. If we don’t use comfort women, men will just rape the locals, contract diseases and possibly leak secrets as well. Plus, sex might do them good in combat. While the author points out that comfort women were largely an extension of the state of Japan, all of these reasons serve more as the justifications for a past wrong as opposed to a case for moral/historical relativism. Hiromichi, in his piece “The Truth About the Comfort Women”, is quick to point out that many other countries and areas entrenched in war have suffered and propagated kinds of systems similar to Japan’s comfort women. This is a valid criticism and I think Hiromichi, Japan and the entire world can benefit from the lesson of the comfort women. Perhaps the recruitment process by the Japanese military wasn’t as wide spread as many activists claim it to be. Maybe the total number of women in service of the military wasn’t as high as some think. Maybe they all volunteered. Regardless, what no one can ignore is that the stories of Kim Bok-dong from the Amnesty article are real, and there are other women from around the globe with stories like her. The governments of the world must recognize these women and validate their struggles and no one can be allowed to dismiss their stories or be allowed to make excuses for what happened to them. Most importantly, men of the world must make the first step in equality by recognizing the dominance over women they have perpetuated since the birth of humanity.